Around the world

Posted: September 21, 2012 - 11:32pm

BEIRUT

Iraq prevented a North Korean plane from entering its airspace on suspicion it was carrying weapons for Syria, prompting praise from the U.S. on Friday but also demands for a ban of Iranian aircraft with similar suspect cargo.

Iraq’s decision could potentially close a supply line for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s embattled regime, which is fighting a civil war against rebels trying to topple him.

U.S. officials have accused Baghdad of allowing Iran — like North Korea an ally of Syria — to fly weapons to Syrian forces through Iraqi airspace, a charge Iraq has denied.

JERUSALEM

A shootout along the Israel-Egypt border on Friday, in which three Islamic militants and an Israeli soldier were killed, highlighted the growing threat posed by al-Qaida-inspired groups that have taken hold in the vast desert of the Sinai Peninsula.

The militants were heavily armed and wearing explosive belts when they infiltrated into Israeli territory and opened fire on soldiers protecting a team of workers building a border fence meant to buffer against just such attacks, the Israeli military said.

It said the troops quickly returned fire, killing the militants and preventing a major terror attack. During the exchange, Cpl. Netanel Yahalomi, 20, was shot in the head and later died of his wounds. Another soldier was moderately wounded.

KABUL, Afghanistan

Afghanistan banned all Pakistani newspapers from entering the country on Friday in an attempt to block the Taliban from influencing public opinion via the press.

The order, issued by the Ministry of Interior, adds to the mounting tension between the neighboring countries.

It focuses specifically on blocking entry of the papers at Torkham, a busy border crossing, and directed border police to gather up Pakistani newspapers in the three eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan.

ANKARA, Turkey

A Turkish court on Friday convicted 326 military officers, including the former air force and navy chiefs, of plotting to overthrow the nation’s Islamic-based government in 2003, in a case that has helped curtail the military’s hold on politics.

A panel of three judges at the court on Istanbul’s outskirts initially sentenced former air force chief Ibrahim Firtina, former navy chief Ozden Ornek and former army commander Cetin Dogan to life imprisonment but later reduced the sentence to a 20-year jail term because the plot had been unsuccessful, state-run TRT television reported.

The three were accused of masterminding the plot.

JOHANNESBURG

Strikes in South Africa have spread in the gold mining industry, inspired by an illegal and violent work stoppage that netted workers at a platinum mine as much as a 22 percent pay hike.

Miners at AngloGold Ashanti’s Kopanang mine, which employs 5,000 people and produced about 4 percent of AngloGold Ashanti’s total production in the first half of this year, started striking during the night shift on Thursday.